Presuppositionalism Primer, pt. 7

Again, since it's been forever and a day, here are links to: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.

We have seen how our approach to doing apologetics, presupposing the truth of God's Word, places us in direct opposition to not only the unbeliever's particular religious opinions, but to his entire view of the world and our relation to it. We have seen that on his own assumptions about the universe, the very conversation we are having with him would be impossible. We have considered a few of the many transcendentals necessary for reason and logic to operate in the world and noted that only the Bible's world-view can account for those things. We've pointed out a few examples of how this plays out in conversation.

The next step in our reasoning is to discern and point out what the unbeliever is forced to do, no matter what non-Christian philosophy or religion he professes, namely, act as if the world is what the Bible says that it is, even while he says otherwise.

Here's the thing: the world is God's world, and it only works His way. In order to make any sense of it one has to reason according to the laws He has provided, which can only exist because He does and that reflect His mind. In using them at all, one is acting on the fact that He is there, and that things work the way He has revealed them.

So, having pointed out to our friend how his reasoning does not line up with the way he claims the universe works, we then turn to show him how he's subconsciously taking our assumptions for granted and basing his thinking upon them.

For example, our agnostic friend who says there is no absolute truth, acts as if there is in thousands of ways. Or our atheist friend, who claims morality is subjective, turns around and calls something "immoral" as if that moral rule applies universally to everyone. Or our Hindu friend, who claims all is one, makes distinction between himself and us, or one word and another.

The popular way of phrasing this is "borrowed capital." It's actually stolen, but I digress. He's stealing from us only what he needs to make his argument, then denying everything that follows from what he's taken.

This highlights some things the Bible says about unbelieving man. He knows there's a God, and what He is like, but he suppresses what he knows so that he can try to be his own god. His failure is primarily ethical, not intellectual. Also, because he knows, we have a way to make contact with him on common ground. We all act as if the world is what the Lord has revealed it to be in the Bible. We can't do otherwise. His Word is the only way to make sense of it--It is a light to our path.

By showing all this to our friend, we then give him the call we've been waiting for, which I will explain next time.